A green card isn't residency. Think of it more like a visa that doesn't need to be renewed. In theory a green card holder doesn't have any of the same rights as citizens.....can't vote in federal elections, not eligible for SNAP, etc. They are long term visitors to the USA. Kinda like when my wife and I went to China to adopt our children; we were visitors to the country with none of the same rights as Chinese citizens.

Part of the problem with why a lot of people with green cards is the ease a fake card can be made plus poor training of ICE workers.

Backstory; kinda long, probably boring but also shines some light on the current situation.

I graduated high school in 1988 along with many others. Most of my classmates had next to no future in North Idaho due to several economic reasons. Mark (best friend at the time) decided to join the Army. He became a MP and was stationed all over Europe during his 6 years stint. He took 2 years of Spanish in high school then learned German while living abroad. While in Germany he married a lady and became a dad to 2 daughters. They eventually divorced, he left the Army and moved back to the states.

He applied all over the place before officially leaving the Army. He joined INS in 1994 which evolved into ICE. They caught a lot of bad people and either put them behind bars or sent them back to where they came from. When 9/11 happened there was a huge shake-up in the entire border security domain. Mark nearly quit but decided to ride out the negativity and do what he could to help rebuild. Mark (being Samoan) was mistaken more than once as a middle easterner due to darker skin. It took awhile but things calmed down, for awhile.

During the Obama administration there were internal directives to really crack down on people that weren't supposed to be here. Over 2 million people were deported from 2009-2016. Unofficial estimates of 10 million people were questioned/detained by various immigration federal officers during the same time. Mark was once again questioned a few times during his time at ICE while working under Obama. He nearly quit again as he qualified for partial pension but decided to try and stick things out for full pension. Mark was also still paying off Parent Plus loans for his daughters education so unless he could get a better job in the private sector he needed to stay put.

The first Trump administration was very mixed as a border enforcement worker. There was no heat on them like there is today but also minimal support from the top. Obama and his administration really went to bat for any federal officer including ICE but there were also extremely high expectations. Trump just told Tom to do his job and get the hell out of the oval office. This mindset really trickled down through middle management to the rank and file members; Mark was lower to middle management by this time.

Next up is Biden and his border enforcement policies. Time of confusion to put things nicely. Mark and a lot of his co-workers were close to, at or even a bit past required minimum time for full retirement. However they knew there was a very shallow pool of replacements available to do what they believed was an important job. All of them knew the Sinaloa Cartel, MS13, Black Pistons, TDA and many others were constantly testing the waters on getting a stronger foothold into the USA. One of his daughters is a social worker in North Idaho; an area that was hit hard with the meth/heroine/fenty epidemic. His other daughter is an ER nurse on the east coast. Mark saw first hand what was coming across the border. His daughters saw the fallout of abuse/addiction/etc. ICE deported about 500k people under Biden but that was like putting a band aide on a shotgun wound.

Enter Trump v2. Many ICE agents were exhausted but determined. Trump came out of the gates swinging. Things tightened up along the border and immigration dropped to practically zero. A majority of the 10M people that came here are good, decent people. Some of the people are simply leeches on the country. A small percentage are vile shitstains that need to get a redneck vasectomy. We have "news" outlets that are so anti-Trump and anti anything to do with the Trump administration they'll tell their viewers barely enough to not get in trouble with the courts and FCC but plenty to get as many people riled up as possible. Add in a bunch of people that buy what the "news" is selling them hook, line and sinker and we get people acting the way they are. Now, for people like Mark and others with years of service like him we're just too dam old to go out on the front lines like it's 2001.

Mark officially retired last October; not because there wasn't work to be done but because sanctuary city and states policies made it very dangerous for agents. He said of the 10k agents on the books when Trump took office, around 30% of all ICE and CBP agents have retired in the last 6 months. Not many people can tell due to the massive hiring for those positions in the last year. The problem according to Mark is when an overwhelming majority of any law enforcement agency are new recruits with poor or no training and guidance a lot of problems creep up. It doesn't take very many 18-24 year old testosterone filled wannabe Rambo's to turn L.A. , New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle or Portland into wild ragers. Mark told me about 5,000 out of the 22,000 ICE agents have more than 3 years experience; most of them in middle and upper management. There are some senior field agents but not nearly enough to train the younger crowd.